As the stars of Disney’s highly anticipated Marvel movie, Captain America: Civil War, make the rounds on television to promote this latest installment in the superhero franchise, one actor is outshining all others with a touching anecdote about their daughter.
Chris Hemsworth, who plays the Norse god Thor, sat down with Ellen DeGeneres this week to talk about another film he’s in, The Huntsman: Winter’s War, when he was reminded of an interaction he had with his four-year-old daughter India.
It seemed that the Australian actor was confronted by his daughter who had some questions as to why her brothers had penises and she was without one of her own. Hemsworth made an attempt to explain to his daughter that there were some distinct differences in bodies based on their sex, including the differences in their genitalia.
India, however, did not seem content with the answer he father had provided, and exclaimed to her father that she wanted a penis regardless of these differences. After a brief digestion of this, Hemsworth was quick to support his daughter’s position, telling her that she could be anything that she wanted to be, which sent his daughter running off to a playground, content with her father’s answer.
What kicked off this anecdote was the topic of parenthood, which Hemsworth took to interestingly. He made a point about the importance of parents being supportive of their children and positive as well when it came to the topic of gender roles in their children.
This expanded to cover the movies Hemsworth stars in, quite a few which are part of large franchises with diverse ensemble casts. He pointed out the importance of taking his daughter to see movies that presented strong female characters who took charge in their narratives and did away with the stereotypical roles that many women are asked to play, such as the women who desperately wait to be rescued by one of the male leads. He preferred roles that communicated to his daughter that women were just as capable as their male counterparts at taking over the world.